The best Christmas stores in the U.S. to celebrate the holidays year round

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Always Christmas (@alwayschristmas_ga)

Since the early 1990s, Always Christmas has brought the holiday spirit to this small town on the Georgia-Tennessee border and become a Christmas lovers' destination in the process. This shop, which gives Christmas-movie vibes in a white, two-story mansion-esque building, is run by a husband-and-wife team who scour markets in Atlanta and elsewhere for unique ornaments and decorations for the large inventory.

If European Christmas markets inspire you, this shop in Middleburg, Virginia, might be the closest you'll get. The Christmas Sleigh specializes in European decorations and traditions, from Steinbach-German Nutcrackers to German music boxes and Italian, handmade creche (nativities). Another speciality: handmade, traditional Williamsburg apple trees, featuring imported Tuscan craved fruits. The team relies on regular trips to Germany, Austria, and Italy to source new products and offers worldwide shipping.

This multi-generational family store sprung up after a London expat was looking for a hobby and decided to open a year-round Christmas store in sunny San Diego. A couple of decades later and the family business has grown from a 1,000-square-foot shop to more than 40,000 square feet in retail and warehouse space. At City Lights Collectibles, the team specializes in a wide range of holiday decorations, including an expansive collection of items from Disney and other films and TV shows (and hard-to-find retired ornaments). 

The largest year-round Christmas store in the world, Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland attracts two million people every year. After opening in 1945, Bronner’s quickly outgrew its original location and now encompasses 45 acres, including landscaped grounds. Don’t miss the 15ft snowman and ½ mile Christmas Lane, sparkling with approximately 100,000 lights. The 2.2-acre showroom requires a staggering amount of inventory: 6,000 styles of ornaments, 300 decorated trees, and over 50,000 trims and gifts. Each year, shoppers purchase over two million ornaments and 125,000 light sets—and it’s a good thing they buy so much since the store’s electric bill is a whopping $1,250 a day.

Nestled in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, The Incredible Christmas Place isn’t really a store—it’s more like an entire Christmas village. What started as a small gift shop in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (best known as the home of Dollywood) is now a 43,000-square-foot complex that includes multiple stores, a candy shop, and even a hotel. Spend your whole day (except for Thanksgiving or Christmas Day when the shop is closed) at the Bavarian village of shops before tucking in across the street at the Inn at Christmas Place with visions of sugar plums dancing in your head. The decorations stay up 365 days a year—we’d expect nothing less—but change year to year.

Yes, Virginia, there is a town called Santa Claus, Indiana and as one of the best Christmas towns in the USA, you better believe it has a Christmas store! The Santa Claus Christmas Store features a massive selection of holiday decorations, advent calendars, nativities, and lights. If all that shopping makes you hungry, Mrs. Claus’ Sweet Treats counter has house-made cookies, fudge, and chocolates to sweeten your experience. And what Christmas store would be complete without ornaments? The shop has tons to make your tree more festive than ever, and many can be personalized.

This charming store is something of a Christmas miracle. What began in 1976 as a small gift shop and florist became so popular that it expanded into a massive operation of 35,000 square feet. When founder Robert Moore and his business partner, Larry Heard, decided to close their holiday store to retire in 2014, they were flooded with over 4,000 pleas to reconsider. Only a few months after closing, Robert Moore & Co. Christmas Town & Village Collectibles opened its doors as a new business (in the same location, run by the same people). The store has just about everything you could need to decorate for Christmas, plus a variety of festive items for Thanksgiving, Halloween, Independence Day, and other holidays.

If you find yourself at the North Pole (not the actual North Pole in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, but the small town in Alaska just outside Fairbanks), there’s only one thing to do: meet Santa. At the Santa Claus House, you can greet the happy ho-ho-hoer and get ornaments, sweets, and Christmas decor in one trip. The Alaska shop has made people smile since 1952 and has plenty of unique gifts you won’t find in a big box store. You can also get your little ones a personalized letter from Santa (complete with the North Pole postmark) for a little reassurance that they’ve made the 'good' list. After you’ve secured a bag full of goodies, head outside and sit in Santa’s sleigh, visit his reindeer team and stand in awe of the world’s largest Santa—a mammoth statue almost 50ft tall.

Decorator’s Warehouse sells Christmas by the truckload. Owners Kathy and David Hanson started the business in their living room in 1989 and now have a 60,000-square-foot brick-and-mortar storefront. The shop is divided into areas with distinct themes so customers can shop based on specific styles they’re hoping to achieve—head to Santa’s Sweet Shoppe for realistic, tasty-looking ornaments or swing through 'Farmhouse Christmas' to bring home Texas vibes. A cafe, Dasher Pie Co., also serves coffee and pie for a caffeine or sugar rush while shopping.

In the 1980s, David Green opened a Christmas shop as a way to supplement his ceiling fan business, spinning his career in a new direction. The shop would grow into the major attraction now known as North Pole City, which spreads holiday cheer in Oklahoma City from September to January (and year-round online). The shop looks absolutely magical with a forest of fully decked-out trees, giant nutcrackers, and almost every inch lit up with glittering bulbs (there’s a virtual tour on its website, so you can see for yourself). For something truly over the top, kids can catch a ride on The North Pole City Express, a train that runs throughout the store.

After visiting the Kristmas Kringle Shoppe, a Yelp reviewer commented, 'Everyone says Disney World is the happiest place on Earth (because it is), but the Kristmas Kringle Shoppe ties for that title.' Opened in 1978 by Grace and Jerry Mielke, the shop outgrew its original location and is now a bonafide experience inside a two-story building that Jerry himself designed. It features a Bavarian-style facade and a European village interior layout with a faux gingerbread house, church, and other structures that house holiday gifts and decor. You’ll feel like you’re in an ancient town of yore as you peruse the goods, including over 70 themed trees, gifts for all seasons, various Christmas villages, animated figures, and imported ornaments. Plus, staff calligraphers are happy to personalize your special purchases.

The Christmas Palace has been the home for all things holiday in South Florida since 1992. It doesn't matter how warm it is outside; inside the shop, it feels like the North Pole in its over-the-top, sparkly celebration of all things Santa Claus. You'll find Christmas trees, ornaments, outdoor decorations and lights. There are now two locations of the Christmas Palace, plus the shop sells online 24/7, so anytime is a good time to stock up for the holidays.